Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction, Motivation, and Exercise in Older Adults

A predominate motivation theory used to predict exercise behavior is self-determination theory, which posits that motivation is driven by satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This study investigates the relationship between motivation, basic psychological needs satisfaction, and exercise in a sample of older adults. Significant differences were found between older adult exercisers and nonexercisers in intrinsic motivation, self-determined extrinsic motivation, nonself-determined extrinsic motivation, autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This study suggests that self-determination theory is a suitable framework to investigate older adult exercise behaviors.